‘The Conlons live less than an hour out of London,’ she said. ‘So if John Conlon is there to pick up Eddie after the tour, what’s to stop Eddie meeting Violette every day after that? If Anna was still alive, I’d say none of this would have been possible. But it’s school holidays and John Conlon’s at work.’

She pointed to Richmond on the map. ‘Twickenham cemetery, where Yimi is buried, is close by.’ She looked at Bish. ‘Violette knows how Jamal and I feel about neither of us having seen our mother’s grave.’ Bish heard the catch in her voice. ‘She would have gone there for us.’

He dared not look at them. Let them have their time.

Some moments later, Sarraf tapped Edgeware Road Tube station. ‘Paddington Green,’ he said, in a voice resigned to the truth of what his sister was saying.

Where Bish had taken Violette out of her mother’s arms. Was he part of this history tour?

‘So heading north can only mean one thing,’ LeBrac said. ‘She’s taking Eddie to Malham Cove. To the last place she ever saw her father.’

‘It’s been almost two weeks,’ Bish said. ‘There’ve been no sightings up north.’

‘She knows everyone’s on the lookout for them,’ Jamal said. ‘In London it’s easy for them to get lost in the crowd, but they’ll get noticed the moment she gets on a train north, or hitchhikes. Fewer people around, and much harder to blend in. They’d stick out for sure.’

LeBrac nodded. ‘If the bomb hadn’t gone off, it would simply have been Normandy, London, Malham Cove, me, Jimmy back in Calais, and home. All within two weeks. Her destinations haven’t changed. The chronology has.’

Sarraf looked gutted, gripping his sister’s hand. ‘Why now? How did they find each other?’

‘Talk to John Conlon,’ she said to Sarraf, and Bish heard anger in her voice. ‘Remind him that Eddie’s thirteen years old and that Anna would never have let this happen. Tell him to be a damn father to his son.’ Her tears spilled now. ‘Because Violette wouldn’t have gone behind our backs if Eddie didn’t need her, and if Eddie needs her it means John Conlon has screwed up!’

When it was time to go, Bish joined the guard outside the door, leaving them to say their goodbyes. A couple of minutes later they stepped out and Noor said, ‘Take him to my mother’s grave.’ It wasn’t an order or a plea, and she waited for neither a refusal nor confirmation. She pressed a kiss to her brother’s hand and cupped it to her face before the guard led her away.

He drove Sarraf to Twickenham cemetery and asked for directions at the office, which prompted a lecture from the woman behind the desk about the desecration of graves being an offence. When they came across Aziza Sarraf’s grave he understood why. Someone had taken to the headstone with a sharp object and there were traces of old graffiti.